


at the end what can i do?

by Jaybird_Wings



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: End of the World, I wrote this all in one sitting, Minor Violence, Multi, The Beholding, The Lonely - Freeform, The Watcher's Crown, The Web - Freeform, Unconventional Format, but not really, most these ships are just like squint and you'll see it, rated teen for like three curses so whatever, so watch this become Not Canon soon, vaguely theorizing what happens at Ny-Alesund
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-02 22:05:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19450414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaybird_Wings/pseuds/Jaybird_Wings
Summary: The Watcher’s Crown is this:The Archivist is standing across the room from Elias Bouchard, who holds The Crown. It is an old crown that has been waiting to be worn since The Beholding first Knew anything. The Eye watches, closer than ever and nothing can stop this now. It is certain of this.Elias Bouchard holds this crown up, offering it to The Archivist.





	at the end what can i do?

**This is a short story about the person who was previously known as Jonathan Sims:**

The Archivist has come a long way from the beginning. 

The Archivist has tamed their powers, more proficiently than many before. Gertrude hardly lived up to anything besides the simple compulsion in her voice, she was never going to be anything more than a nuisance. The Archivist, though, has crossed the barrier from human to not, and even now The Eye watches closely over the entity that was previous known as “Jonathan Sims.”

Jonathan Sims entered the Magnus Institute craving knowledge in the most human way possible, because no feeble human mind could ever truly Know and Understand, couldn’t Learn like he would eventually find. He started out afraid, like most small-minded humans live for the rest of their lives.

Fearing. 

But what never wavered was the desire to devour knowledge, statement after statement. Jonathan never wanted to be a monster, but he was certainly perfect for the part. The head of The Institute, Elias Bouchard, Knew from the beginning that this was his foretold Archivist. Jonathan Sims was perfect, and however hard it would be to train him into the role it would be worth it. Every obstacle and bit of resistance would pay off. 

**Ellis Bouchard is simple, in this regard:**

He serves his god dutifully. He has been serving The Eye for a long time. He doesn’t quite remember how he came to this point, because it’s unimportant knowledge. The feeble thing that existed before he met his god didn’t Know and Feared. His god has freed him from fear though. 

But The Eye has never loved him. Even though he was more faithful, even though he Chose the eye unlike many others who are forced under its relentless gaze. But he was not the first choice. 

No, but The Eye Loves the Archivist.

The Eye has been waiting a long, long time for the perfect Archivist and he has arrived. With Jonathan Sims, the Watcher’s Crown is possible. Their Archivist craves to know everything, and The Beholding can make that reality. How could Jonathan refuse such an offer, when the right time came? 

Elias doesn’t need love to want The Watcher’s Crown to arrive as well. He’s gone through so much, having to deal with pests like Leitner, Tim, Sasha, or Melanie, but it’s finally here. The Watcher’s Crown is finally here.

**The Eye watches this:**

Jonathan Sims liked pretending to be human. Even with golden words and eyes that could See more, Know more, he likes acting that the little things mattered. Little things like the tiny humans next to him or his quickly depleting empathy, but those are easily discard-able. Whatever won’t be important after The Eye comes isn’t important now. 

Even after The Archivist Chose to be under the relentless watcher, to return from dangling perilously before The End’s grasping hands, Jonathan Sims insisted on acting like a human. Going through the motions, acting like it was all still easy. As if The Archivist’s dreams were normal, as if a person giving a statement is more than another opportunity for knowledge. Once the Archivist steals a statement from a bystander, without regard to the little human’s emotion, trauma, or Fear, things can progress beautifully. 

Jonathan Sims is now The Archivist, and nothing more.

But the Eye only Knows, it doesn’t feel the emotions that could come into play. In the same way Elias Bouchard can Know everything and still not predict how the emotions of the institute staff will affect their actions.

Emotions aren’t important for knowledge, because it is blinding. 

**The Watcher’s Crown is this:**

The Archivist is standing across the room from Elias Bouchard, who holds The Crown. It is an old crown that has been waiting to be worn since The Beholding first Knew anything. The Eye watches, closer than ever and nothing can stop this now. It is certain of this. 

Elias Bouchard holds this crown up, offering it to The Archivist.

Elias Bouchard has waited for this moment for a very, very long time. He has waited to do exactly this, and let his god devour the world. The Eye watches everything in that room, but Elias is too focused on The Archivist to care about anything else now. 

Many humans in The Eye’s presence cannot even move in the fear of being Watched.

Paralyzed, they can do nothing.

Martin Blackwood doesn’t think Jonathan Sims even exists anymore. 

**Martin Blackwood has always cared about this:**

Maybe falling for Jon wasn’t at first sight, even how much that would be cute and romantic, but honestly the man hadn’t looked like he showered or slept in days when they first met. It didn’t get better. Martin just knows one day when Jon is trying to make tea and fucks it up, and it spills everywhere and all he can think is, ‘Oh no. Not like this.’ 

Because Jon hates him, explicitly makes that clear every chance he can get, but somehow Martin loves the passion in his face when he’s working in the archives, or the slight smile when there’s a bird singing nearby, and Martin thinks he might just be lonely. 

Martin has realized too late that Jonathan Sims never does well when lonely, and he faces his mistakes at the end of the world.

He hears Elias say, “Our god can offer you everything that could ever be known. Not just the few statements you receive at this tiny institute, but the entire world to Know.”

And Jon, well, he looks absolutely enthralled with that idea. But, it’s not like it’s him anymore. He abandoned the man he loved thinking it would protect him, but of course it ended like this.

So, paralyzed under The Eye’s gaze, he’s frozen. 

He’s cared about keeping Jon safe for so long, and maybe Jon was right all along. What could Martin do?

**Georgie Barker is this:**

Fearless. The Eye can watch her all it wants but she flexes her hands and looks up. She looks up into eyes that fill the roof of the room that is causing everyone unable to look away from the ground. She thinks she remembers stage fright, back when she was in middle school and she had to perform a speech about eating vegetables for your health or whatever. 

This is an important moment, because Jon is a good guy and no matter what anybody else thinks she can still see that human or monster, he is Jon. Fear can often be blinding. 

Sure, he’s different, but that has never stopped anyone from caring about people close to them. She remembers him milder in college, looking as sleepless as he does now because he used to not care for himself in a different way. Quitting cigarettes was harder for him than he’d ever admit, and right now he wants something terrible for him. That knowledge being offered, well it’s blinding to him. 

She doesn’t think she can get more than a sentence in before Elias or The Eye does something to stop her.

So, she says simply, “Jonathan Sims, don’t be a moron, think about your friends-”

**The Archivist wants to know:**

Everything. 

Every little human has something they know and there are hordes of them, and The Beholding offers that entire world to devour. Every moment before this doesn’t feel real, and the ones before The Archivist wasn’t under the gaze of The Eye feels fuzzy and nonexistent, even. It couldn’t be as important as this. 

The crown in meant to be worn by him, he Knows it will fit perfectly. The Archivist feels that somehow, they’ve known their entire life that this would happen. 

But Georgina Barker says a name- his name. 

And, of course, Georgie says his name- and insults him- at the end of the world, because he looks away from the glowing, beautiful, and grand crown and sees her. Georgie, who brings up messy and complicated and very human emotions, who doesn’t feel fear as The Eye points the spotlight at her and her alone. She doesn’t quiver under a god’s eye and he cares more about her- and Basira, and Daisy and Martin, Martin, Martin more than any promise To Know. 

**The Web has always known this:**

The world is better off as it is, so the threads the Spiders have woven can keep growing.

It saw a child, in a different place and time, who was about to be caught in the web before a bully caught tangled up instead. Ever since that little boy, who is now a man, has known that there is more. The Eye can act like it owns Jonathan Sims all it wants, but there is nothing that can change a first Fear. Ever since that day a string of web has been caught on his back because he was the human who got out. 

And The Spiders know what will be interesting. 

He’s Beholding material, obviously, from how much he reads and tries to know about the world.

The Web knows that, if all goes according to plan, Jonathan Sims will wear the Watcher’s Crown and bring The Eye to destroy the world and The Web doesn’t want that. But killing one potential archivist won’t stop the avalanche coming, so they tug on some string instead. One thing leads to another, and The End touches Georgie Barker’s life. She could lay down and grip The End’s hand but instead, she gets back to living. 

One thing leads to another, and she stops The Archivist for a moment to remind him that he has always been, and always be, Jonathan Sims. The Eye needs to be reminded that he has also, and always truly, be The Web’s as well. Not to hold a fancy title or bring the end of the world, but for this story that has unfurled ever since that day he opened their book.

**Jonathan Sims is uncertain whether to:**

Give in or give up. A part of him wishes he gave up after the Unknowing, to just reach the End of this horrible journey. A part of him wishes he would just give in to the Beholding, to just reach the finale to this story. 

But Jonathan Sims doesn’t give up or give in. He fights. 

He closes his eyes, he knows the Eye can still See him, and thinks of the “Forever Deep Below Creation.” Physically, Daisy got so far away The Hunt couldn’t reach her anymore. But he won’t be Buried again, not like that. But his mind can get far away from the compulsion to wear that crown whenever he looks at it. The Eye gets farther away with each feeling, the chats he has had with Daisy, the mayhem of the trip he took with Basira, and every moment Martin helped him feel warm and alive. 

Jon was not human in the sense that he had a mouth full of golden words that could compel others, and a mind connected to a whole nebula of information at his fingertips, and a head perfectly shaped for a crown that could end the world. Knowledge means a different thing now, but maybe that’s not the point. These qualities cannot determine how human he is, but what he decides to do with them, how he decides to care. 

Jonathan Sims cares for people, these people in front of him, he cares for the world that would be forsaken if The Eye takes over. He cares about every statement giver who is plagued because he is so, so sorry. 

This is what makes Jonathan Sims human in the way that matters. 

**Basira knows this:**

She has never put her faith into Jon’s connection to his humanity. She has seen him use his powers in monstrous ways and do unbelievable things. 

She always knows that even though he can’t die, he doesn’t hold much regard for his own life as it is now. If Ny-Alesund was anything to go by, he’s definitely a moron.

He stopped The Eye from making her The Detective. He was more terrified than she’d ever seen him because Becoming the Title, well he said he would never wish that upon someone else. He told her she had Daisy to worry about, and she couldn’t stop the words, “But what about Martin?”

And she doesn’t care what the Lucas’s work in because she never saw anyone look so Lonely.

“You and Daisy should take care-”

“You should talk to him.” 

He shakes his head, "I... trust him.”

Basira decides to do something radically stupid, and decides to trust the utter moron that is Jonathan Sims, because every moment he stands still The Eye is getting farther and farther away. So, muscles still aching from the tension she feels under Watch, she punches the utter Bastard that is Elias Bouchard. The Crown clatters to the ground.

“For what you fucking did to Melanie- and all your messed-up crap.” 

**Things end like this:**

Daisy is scared fighting and violence will call The Hunt, but it doesn’t come. A hunter knows there can’t be good prey anywhere it can be watched with scrutiny on all ends.

Basira knows that when the Beholding got too close to her in Ny-Alesund, she thought of Daisy. She thinks of her now as they stop Elias.

Georgie stares at The Beholding as it retreats, it hates her and tries to Know how to make her scared but it can’t. How could she unravel everything? She was just one person. But of course she could, she’s Georgie fucking Barker.

Elias Bouchard yells, scorning Peter Lucas. He was supposed to keep them under control, to stop Martin most of all. He Knew from the moment he pulled that stunt before The Unknowing that Martin could ruin this all if left unchecked.

Peter Lucas only shrugs, “Honey, I’ve got my own god to feed.”

As the same as Peter Lucas had Martin Blackwood and co. stop The Extinction, he can’t have The Watcher’s Crown stop The Lonely’s chance.

Elias probably won’t talk to him for a long time after this, but they always find their way back to each other eventually. What can he say, he’s Lonely.

Melanie King is far away, lost in Spirals unable to join the fight. Helen Richardson doesn’t watch, she isn’t a Watcher, but she feels satisfaction at the Eye’s failure. That’s what it deserves. The failure and having to retreat, it deserves it for the hundreds of years to come. 

Martin Blackwood isn’t lonely, isn’t watching, doesn’t catch the web- he is independent of the Entities that tried grabbing him. The Lonely never really did have him, all it ever needed was Jon’s loneliness. The Eye doesn’t need him, has never really had him fully. And the Web is always there, but it takes a back seat for the story to finish. Martin Blackwood decides he is tired of distance and cold and static, because he loves Jonathan and is finally, after so long, unafraid to say it.

Jonathan Sims looks at Martin Blackwood, and it isn’t to Know anything, because he already knows. There isn’t ethereal light that ignites Jon, or any greater depth to his eyes than the emotions he feels for Martin. He isn’t The Archivist anymore, not really, because he doesn’t want To Know everything anymore, just to know everything about Martin Blackwood.

The Watcher’s Crown fails, and The Beholding comes to nothing.


End file.
